The succession is complete, and Reigns finally has an heir, or uh, sequel. This isn’t merely a queen-based rehash of the original game. Reigns: Her Majesty adds to and improves on the Reigns formula in several ways, while keeping its core tinder-swipe kingdom building gameplay.

Reigns: Her Majesty is available on iOS, Android, and Steam for Windows, Mac, and Linux. It costs $2.99. Expect it to take around 3-5 hours to complete.

We’re a little late getting this out, but we’re wrapping up our IFComp 2017 coverage with a discussion of the comp as a whole, the top 10 games, and discussions of a few games that we didn’t cover in our earlier episodes.

This episode we’re discussing short-game touchpoint Thirty Flights of Loving by Blendo Games. Thirty Flights has cast a wide influence over the five years since its release and employs film-like smash cuts and non-sequential storytelling to great effect. We have discussed it in brief on past episodes, but it’s time to talk about it in depth.

Thirty Flights of Loving is available on Steam and the Humble Store for $5.00, and includes the prequel Gravity Bone. It takes about 15 minutes to complete, though you’ll likely want to play through it multiple times.

Continuing our coverage of IFComp 2017, we’ve played a dozen more games. Check out past two episodes for an intro to IFComp and our first batch of this year’s games. Let us know what caught your attention from this year’s competition!

In this short episode we’re introducing our upcoming coverage of IFComp 2017 with an introduction to the competition and to interactive fiction for new players. We covered IFComp in both 2015 and 2016, and this year we’re preparing for the best and biggest year the competition has ever had. Join us on our next episode for reviews and reactions to some of the games of 2017.

Nex Machina is an arcade shooter with an incredible pedigree. Super Stardust developer Housemarque teamed up with video game legend Eugene Jarvis, creator of games like Defender, Robotron 2048, and Smash TV to create a modern dual-stick shooter with obvious arcade influences.

Shane and Raygan discuss the game, their history with the dual stick shooter genre, and a few other notable games to check out if you like arcade shooters.

Nex Machina is available on Steam and PS4 for $19.99. It has an arcade structure designed around frequent re-plays and high scores. Expect it to take about two hours to complete a play through, though this will vary widely by difficulty level and ability.

Gotta go fast! This episode we’re talking about Sonic Mania, the first Sonic the Hedgehog game in years to recapture the feeling of the original 2D Sonic games. We discuss our history as Sonic fans, the fascinating development story behind the game, and how Sonic Mania measures up as part of the Sonic series.

[00:00:00] The Short Game The Hedgehog
[00:02:25] Sonic Memories
[00:12:47] Sonic Mania Development Story
[00:53:14] Wrap up and Outro

Fullbright’s followup to Gone Home finally arrived last month, and we’re floating in to investigate. Tacoma is a sci-fi exploration/narrative storytelling game set aboard a moon-orbiting space station 70 years in the future. You play a contractor sent to investigate a disaster aboard the station, learning what happened through environmental detail and AR surveillance recordings. Uncover the events personal stories of the six crewmembers who made Tacoma home, and discover how they responded to the disaster that threatened their lives.

Tacoma is available for Mac, Windows, and Linux (via Itch.io, Steam, and GOG) and on the Xbox One. Expect it to take 2-4 hours to complete.

Mike Bithell, creator of Short Game favorites Thomas Was Alone and Volume, surprised us with an unexpected release, and it’s incredibly up our alley. Subsurface Circular is a two-hour text adventure game (with beautiful accompanying graphics) about a robot detective, solving a missing person’s case on the subsurface circular, a robots only subway system.

Before the (early) spoiler break at [00:13:50] we discuss the surprise release and what Mike Bithell’s new “Bithell Shorts” label means for short games. After the spoiler break we discuss some of our favorite moments from the game, and its shocking conclusion.

Subsurface Circular is available on Steam for $5.99. Expect it to take about 2-3 hours to complete, with a developer commentary available on a second play through.